


Acknowledgments, Dedication, ToC and Timelines

by pallasite



Series: Behind the Gloves [1]
Category: Babylon 5, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: Backstory, Bester Was Right, Canon Compliant, Fix-It, Gen, Psi Corps, The Corps Was Right, The Psi Corps tag is mine, This is the book you've wanted since the '90s, Worldbuilding, telepaths
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-01 07:57:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10184558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasite/pseuds/pallasite
Summary: What isBehind the Gloves?Why does this book exist?Read on!This chapter contains the opening pages of the "Behind the Gloves" series: the dedication, acknowledgments to my beta readers and line editors, timelines of events, a table of contents, the book's statement of purpose, and other materials useful for readers.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For Ricky. I am the instrument; yours is the song.

Special thanks to those who have helped me make this project a reality, from those who line edited the drafts to those who helped with project development or who served as "test readers." I could not have done this without you!!!

(If you feel you should be here and you're not listed, please let me know... I have tried to list everyone, but it is possible that someone slipped my mind. It is not intentional!)

Since _Behind the Gloves_ has been in the works for five years, some of the people listed below worked on the project long ago, and some more recently. Some folks advised from a distance, while others worked on it more substantively.  Thank you to everyone!

In alphabetical order:

Jaclyn Desiree Arceneaux  
Marty Busse  
Sueshep Daemark  
Keith DeCandido  
Terry Egan  
Henry Finch  
Ada Hoffmann  
Micah and Laura Hollis-Symynkywicz  
Sharone Horowit-Hendler  
Suli and Fred Isaacs  
Carter Meland  
Percy  
Leo X. Robertson  
Mark Scheid  
Bogi Takács  
Scott Whitney

 _Behind the Gloves_ is an in-depth series exploring a different side of the Psi Corps from the one presented in canon. This collection of stories and essays presents readers with history, context, and slices of the lives of relatable protagonists covering 150 years of canon history, from the inception of laws that segregated telepaths through the aftermath of the Telepath War.

This project explores the origins and path of telepath "peoplehood" and quest for self-determination. _Who are we? Who were we? How did we get here? What happened to us? And where are we going?_ Along the way, the project fills in gaps and answers questions that canon never fully or adequately addresses. _Why was Dust developed, and by whom? What role did the Corps play in the Earth-Minbari War? How did EarthForce obtain hybrid Shadow ships? And what really happened in the Telepath War, anyway? Who, if anyone, really "won"?_

At the end of the third book of the _Psi Corps Trilogy_ (a 100% canon series according to JMS), Bester faces a war crimes trial in The Hague, and is convicted. **This project stands as Bester's defense: legally, socially and historically.** By providing readers with the "rest of the story," with a nuanced (and not "one-sided") presentation of facts and events, I demonstrate that canon is misleading, and the truth is not as it seems.

Readers who are interested in world-building may especially appreciate this project.

(I do not believe that knowledge of the canon books is necessary to understand this project, but it may be helpful.)

[A Table of Contents and recommended reading order will appear in this space as chapters are uploaded. Timelines will also appear here, separated as different "chapters."]


	2. Basic timeline of telepath history

2115 – Earth Alliance Sen. Lee Crawford of Texas manufactures an international crisis over the “discovery” of telepaths. Fifteen thousand are murdered in a year, and an untold number of fetuses aborted when they tested positive for the so-called “telepath gene.”

2117 – The Earth Alliance (still not global) establishes the Metasensory Regulatory Authority, the precursor to Psi Corps. The Crawford-Tokash Act passes the EA Senate, mandating that telepaths in all signatory countries be registered with the government. Several EA member states, as well as non-member states, protest. (Various cases go to court, and the beginnings of "telepath law" are established.)

2134 – "Teeptown" built in Geneva to be a school, town and "ghetto" for telepaths. EarthDome also built in Geneva.

2148 – IPX discovers Vorlon artifacts on Mars. The artifacts are classified as top secret. After a telepath involved with the project is murdered by IPX, the MRA takes control of the artifacts.

2156 – The "Chiapas Incident" occurs. The EA is on the verge of collapse due to a variety of social and economic factors as well as opposition to Sen. Crawford and President Robinson’s push for a universal MRA. William Karges, presidential bodyguard, saves President Robinson’s life, and in return she pledges to pass “equal opportunity laws” for telepaths. The laws she actually passes do entirely the opposite. The Centauri land and make first contact, claiming Earth to be a long-lost colony. A new wave of anti-telepath pogroms commences, and thousands die. An independently-chartered, universal MRA (Psi Corps) passes the Senate, and Crawford is named as its first director. Crawford is assassinated by rogue telepaths while on the way to meet the Centauri ambassador. Kevin Vacit, Crawford’s second in command, is named by the Senate as director (for life).

2179 – Psi Corps establishes Department Sigma on Mars to study Vorlon artifacts.

2188-2189 – Violent attacks, kidnappings, and other acts of chaos perpetrated by rogue telepaths reach a climactic peak. Director Vacit orders a coordinated global raid on rogue telepath bases of operation (“The Dexter Raid”), destroying and disabling the Underground.

2189 – The Dexter Raid occurs, and the telepath Underground is severely weakened. Bester born, orphaned, and taken into the Corps as an infant (about a week old).

2203 – Kevin Vacit dies, and Johnston is named as his successor (for life).

2204 – Bester runs away from school to chase rogue telepaths and is almost killed. He is rescued by professor Sandoval Bey, who becomes his mentor and father figure.

2205 – Bey dies under mysterious circumstances.

2222 – Bester, a Psi Cop, tracks down and kills Stephen Walters, aka “The Black Fox,” the only rogue telepath leader to survive the Dexter raid, and the head of the Underground. The Underground is again weakened.

2230s – The Dilgar Wars. The EA Senate approves the use of so-called “mind-wipe machines” on normal convicts, and passes new telepath regulations to expand the roles of court telepaths.

2245 – Start of the Earth-Minbari War.

2248 – End of the Earth-Minbari War.

2256 – Bester is first informed of rumors of a normal-run conspiracy in the Corps, one that is very dangerous for telepaths. An intact (and live) Shadow ship is discovered on Mars. (Everyone lays claim to it – IPX, the Corps, EarthGov – but a second Shadow ship arrives and digs it out a few days later, and both ships fly away.) Bester assassinates Johnston on Ganymede. A J’Lai artifact in IPX labs in Geneva is triggered during study, rendering every low-level telepath within a three-mile radius in a permanent vegetative state. Bester tests Byron’s loyalty. The Icarus leaves for Z’Ha’Dum.

2258-2263 – The five years of the Babylon 5 station.

2264 – 2265 – The telepath civil war, known to telepaths as “The Crisis” and to normals as “The Telepath War.” Many telepaths are killed, especially in the Corps leadership. Bester escapes. The EA Senate abolishes the Corps, enfolds surviving Psi Cops into the Earth Alliance Bureau of Investigations (EABI), adopts new, invasive monitoring regulations for telepaths (in exchange for "freedom"), and establishes a policy of so-called “telepath integration.” Telepaths are permitted to enlist in EarthForce.

2266 – The Drakh Plague (“Crusade”). All surviving leadership in the Corps (who have been captured) either cut a deal with the state or are tried and convicted for war crimes.

2272 – Bester captured after years on the run, and put on trial in The Hague for War crimes. Convicted.

2281 – Bester dies in prison. Most telepath regulations have returned to their pre-Crisis form. Telepaths struggle to define their future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon is inconsistent with the dates of key events such as the nuking of San Diego, the third World War, the formation of the Earth Alliance, and the dissolution of the UN, and even more so when these dates are cross-referenced with those given for the formation of the MRA and the Corps. As canon is written, the Centauri arrive in 2156, world peace breaks out, but then San Diego is nuked in a major global war around the same time. _And the Sky Full of Stars_ gives the date of the nuclear attack of having been “over a hundred years ago” as of April 2258.
> 
> According to Dark Genesis, Kevin Vacit visits the IPX labs in San Diego on January 18, 2148, with no mention of San Diego other than as a vibrant, beautiful city. (“I’ve heard San Diego is a beautiful place. Food. Wine. Tijuana a very short trolley ride away...”, p. 102). Yet according to _And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place_ , San Diego was destroyed in WWIII, and no WWIII is described in canon at this late a date; WWIII is implied to have taken place much earlier, in the end of the 21st century.
> 
> This inconsistency is partially resolved by postulating that the nuking of San Diego did not take place during WWIII, but was a separate event carried out by terrorists between 2148 and 2156. This is the timeline _Behind the Gloves_ follows. The date of WWIII, however, cannot be determined, and presumably happened at the end of the 21st century.
> 
> Nor could San Diego have been rebuilt for the visit in 2148 as described in Dark Genesis, because _The Fall of Centauri Prime_ describes San Diego as ruins, over a hundred years later.
> 
> There is no way entirely to resolve these internal inconsistencies.


End file.
